Our trip to Yellowstone!

As you, know we are on vacation in Montana with the Hedrick’s and as usual there is always some kind of crazy thing that happens or an unbelievable adventure that happens to us. Well this year is no different. For the past few years we have always wanted to go to Yellowstone but something has always come up (the kids never want to sit in the car for the drive) so this year we decided to go check out an old Ghost Town, once we checked out all the old buildings it was getting late and Yellowstone was only about three hours away so we told the kids it was ROAD TRIP time and off we went to find a hotel so we could get an early start in the morning and check out Yellowstone. Well after a quick stop at the local Wal-Mart to pick up toothbrushes, under ware and a few other bare necessities we were on our way again.
We arrived at the North Entrance of Yellowstone and just after driving through the gate we come upon a group of Elk and their babies. We are all thinking this is going to be so cool, only here 10 minutes and we are already seeing wildlife.
We all pile out of the car, get our cameras out and start walking closer to get a great photo to take back and show everyone. About this time everyone has to use the restroom, coincidently the elk happen to be making their way down to the river that runs right along the path to the restrooms. Wow this is great….these elk must be really be use to people because they are coming right up to us. After convincing Jessie it may not be a good idea to pet them one of the mama elk starts to get a little agitated because we are too close to her new born baby, it was so young it was wobbling around. Being from the big city we didn’t clue in that when a mama elk bugles that is a good indication you should high tail it out of there. Scott had a great view point of next sequence of events from a bluff above (note he didn’t take any photos or run to our rescue!)
About the time the mama elk made her second bugle and put her ears straight back Kyle and Harold decided it was time to go, Kyle must have sensed something because he was making tracks back to the car at lightning speed. The elk started to chase Jessie so her and the other girls took off up the trail while Me, Cindy and Chrissy tried to hide behind the restroom wall, little did we know this elk mama was pretty ticked off by now and was right on our tails herding us around the restroom and backing us into a spot where there was no escape, her head was rearing up and down and she had fire her eyes! As Cindy got the door to the restroom open and as I was trying to get Chrissy in front of me I fell over the cement step to the bathroom and when I looked up that elk was trying to get me with her hoofs! By now there was sheer panic as we had nowhere to go and she wasn’t backing down. Cindy was yelling that the elk kicked Sandy, Chrissy was running into the bathroom and all of us were trying to get the door shut while blood was rolling down my leg and foot and the elk had her head at the door still determined to teach us a lesson.
I tell you I never thought the inside of a santi can would look so good, we were glad it had a steel door and after waiting until the coast was clear we headed back to the car and listed to Scott and Harold tell us that everyone knows when a elk bugles you better get away from it. Notice that you always get all this great advice after the fact?
So heed the signs at Yellowstone on your next visit that state “DON’T APPROACH THE WILDLIFE” I can only imagine the great video tape that will end up on You Tube from all the people watching above at those TOURIST that were running for their lives from the elk at Yellowstone.